I have only a few Mike Schmidt autographs. None of them, including the one below, are very pretty. To get a nice looking Schmidt autograph you probably have to pay him at a card show or something.

I show you the graphic below not to highlight Ozzie Virgil or Luis Aguayo (although it is the nicest looking Aguayo I ever received) but, instead, to focus on the lack of an autograph for John Denny. I never asked John Denny for an autograph. In fact, I never saw anyone ask John Denny for an autograph even though I saw the man on a few occasions. He glared at "autograph hounds" enough for few people to ever ask. There were stories though.

Darryl, a fellow autograph seeker who was in his 40s in the 1980s, had been obtaining autographs for more than a decade. He said that he once asked John Denny for an autograph and the response was that Denny yelled, "NOOOO!" at the top of his lungs. After hearing that story you can understand why asking him wasn't worth it to me.

Notice that Denny only received the half page treatment. This was because the authors probably thought he would be a fourth starter at best. He pulled a rabbit out of his hat in 1983 though by winning 19 games with a 2.37 ERA. Wow!

The Candy Man had an interesting signature. He's the only one that I know of that signed only his last name.

Dave Parker walked through the hotel lobby before signing this next one with a girl (or maybe two?) on his arm (or arms). Proper autograph etiquette was to not ask a player for an autograph if he was with other non-players (like family, spouses, girlfriends, etc.). But Dave sees the three or four of us who were in the lobby that day and starts heading our way. He then asks me (a 14 or 15 year old) something which I hadn't been asked before; nor have I been asked it since. He says in a joking--not mean--manner, "Why are you here instead of out f@#%ing your girlfriend?" To further impress his lady (or ladies) he reaches out and signs everything we have for him to autograph.

Ozzie didn't like switching pens so when someone had him sign something with a black pen he went down the line of us signing with the same pen. This is one of only two or three autographs in the book that are in black. There are maybe five or six in purple. The other 500+ are in blue.

Next we have another Hall of Famer. Why is Sutter in the Hall of Fame and not Dan Quisenberry (who had a better ERA, more innings, and fewer losses) or even someone never considered a candidate like Kent Tekulve (who had more wins, more innings, and the same ERA)? I don't know. What I do know is that Stuper and Sutter have pretty nice looking autographs below.